The objective of this project is to develop and demonstrate a framework
to assess the localized impact of climate change and climate variability
on a diverse set of interdependent interests including agriculture, water
supply, water quality, air quality, fisheries, and economics. The goal
of this project is not to develop any specific new process models, but
to integrate existing models as to ensure that the linkages between the
various models are appropriately represented. Since any such assessment
is subject to considerable uncertainty, this framework will explicitly
consider the generation and propagation of assessment uncertainty. The
framework will also evaluate the tradeoffs associated with adaptation
alternatives, such as farm management practices and reservoir operations.
The framework will be demonstrated on the Lower Yakima River Basin, Washington.
The assessment results and adaptation tradeoffs will be made available
to the stakeholders via the Internet. The proposed framework will 1) focus
on the horizontal integration, 2) express the impact of various adaptations
as tradeoffs between endpoints and 3) quantify uncertainty.

The critical requirements for the framework have been identified in terms
of accountability, accessibility, and adaptability. To ensure accountability
the framework must provide tools to help planners develop accountable
decision-making processes and to allow users to understand how decisions
were made. For instance, the framework should:

clearly articulate the tradeoffs between multiple objectives,

communicate the likelihood of making decision errors that result
from model and data uncertainty,

create a bias towards robust alternatives,

facilitate the sharing of process knowledge, and

show the models, data, and assumptions used to reach decisions.

To ensure accessibility the framework should:

provide reliable and rapid access to models, data, and the rationale
that underpins decisions,

provide the ability to "drill-down" through decisions, data and
models,

ensure maximum access by being Web-accessible, and

provide safe collaboration for the decision-making process.

As with all technology-based approaches the framework must adapt continuously
and rapidly to new data, models, and needs or the system will soon be
obsolete. The framework must also help planners to be adaptive in their
management approach, giving them greater flexibility and responsiveness.
For instance, the framework should:

incorporate a modular modeling design that allows new data and
models to be integrated into analyses,

support real-time assimilation of data by providing tools to automate
the calibration process,

provide tools required to support adaptive management, and

streamline environmental planning allowing it to occur earlier in
the planning process.